UGH WHAT IS THIS HOMEWORK STUFF

So what’s been going on you ask?

Thursday was spent enjoying the first warm sunny day in Prague since my arrival. I spent most of the day wandering around taking pictures and basking in the sun and all it’s glory. I also attended my first class.

It’s a class about Czech Urban Culture. I arrived promptly at 17:00 took a seat next to Katie and decided having 5 American girls in your class really ruins the whole studying abroad appeal. Regardless, these 5 marketing/communications/I’m going to spend my life in a cubicle until I find a rich enough husband to live off of girls won’t rain on my parade!

The teacher is rather young, cute, and very cheery. We went over the syllabus then took the metro to an art showing. The artists were friends of the professor and I have this suspicion that we only went because she wanted to go.

Upon arrival our professor took attendance then told us we could leave when we wanted. The American girls departed immediately while the rest of the class awkwardly meandered a space starkly similar to White Lightning in Iowa City. There was wine and snacks, so I did my best to seem interested in post-modern art.

All I learned from walking around was that Canadians are really really nice and that modern art is so stupid. I hate to bash artists and their life’s work but come on. I don’t want to see a blank photograph or a slide show presentation full of spooky pictures of crows. Give me some melody, give me something, give me anything! I’d rather look at finger painting pictures done by my sister’s 3^rd grade class than some hipster’s piece of post-mod art. Now not all art is bad. But this guy was supposed to be the best artist in Prague. I remain skeptical and need more convincing before whoever said artist becomes my number 1.

Sorry for that. Art just upsets me. Anywho, the fact that the entire lesson consisted of drinking wine and being confused by art is pretty A—OK.

Oh yeah, early that day I took my Czech placement exam. I met one of the professors who wrote my textbook from Iowa, I should have told her how useless it was when I turned in my test. Maybe she realized that when she saw that 90% of the 12-page test was blank. Oh well, I’m still in basic Czech.

While waiting for the exam to begin I sparked up a conversation with a really sweet girl from New Zealand who was in my orientation group. I informed her that some friends and I would be going to a nightclub and that she should come. One sunset, and one frustrating urban culture experience later I tracked down Tess and met up with the others.

I’ll sum up the night like this. Clubbing is not for me. The entire experience felt like a multi-million dollar Hadley Jr. High. Social with beer and smoking permitted. Tess and I left early and went home.

Sorry everyone, I just really don’t feel like going into any more detail about my weekend! So here’s a brief rundown.

Friday: Tess, my Australian friend Michael and I went to a film screening Tess heard about. The spaces was similar to PS One in IC but instead of a stage it had a mini movie theatre. The experience was awkward and awesome. 3 foreigners and 3 Czechs gathered together to drink tea, eat cookies and watch 2 comedies, French and Irish. The night was followed by warming up at a Pizza place and drinking in my dorm room.

Saturday: Another gorgeous day. Mark and I climbed Petrin Hill, QUITE THE HIKE! The hill was more like a cliff. It was worth it though, I took a whole roll of film. I also wore my Sperrys, not exactly the best shoes for climbing snowy, icy, paths. Luckily I did not slip and break the camera. One sunset and heft bowl of Ramen, Sarachi, egg and baguette later, the Aussie, the Kiwi, and I were on our way to meet up with the Czechs from the day before at a pub. It was very enjoyable and possibly the best evening I’ve had since getting to Prague. It did not seem much different from hanging at The Mill on a warm winter night drinking, laughing and meeting new people. The night ended with a fried cheese sandwich and the night tram home. Total spent that night: 130Kc or about $7.

Sunday:

Lazy lazy lazy. Spent a few hours working on the new Pumba song. Skyped with Kaleigh, walked to Hvezda park with Tess and then cooked more ramen/egg/baguette soup.

TA DA! I’m also not proofreading this bad boy.

Make Everyone Happy/Mechanical Birds

So I have been slacking on my blogging. Sorry everyone, it has just been a busy couple days. I think I may change the format of this journal. Instead of recapping my day-to-day activities I think my new approach will revolve around specific topics. For instance:

There are birds everywhere here. Nothing spectacular or out of the ordinary, just regular ole’ birds you can find in the states. If you have been looking at my recent pictures you may have noticed several pictures of birds. The most prevalent type of bird in Prague would be the omnipresent Pigeon. In America this bird is viewed as dirty and bacteria ridden. Something about the Pigeons here differs from in American. They wander the squares just like humans, eating scraps of bread and hanging around. Sometimes you have to move out of their way or you risk a run-in with a “flying rat”. I’ve grown to love these critters. Yesterday one was just hanging out on one of the statues on Charles Bridge. I was no more than 2 feet away from him, and me and him/her connected.

The next most popular bird in Prague is the seagull. It always baffled me seeing seagulls somewhere other than a costal region. Ya know it’s like when you’re driving around the suburbs and you see 20 seagulls hanging out in a pool of water in a Walmart parking lot. Weird shit right? Anyway, these seagulls stick to the river and bridges. When people feed them they fly all around making for great additions of already picturesque photos (see Prague photo album).

Next are ducks. Normal ducks here, the brown ones and the mallards. It must be mating season or something because they’re always chilling in pairs bobbing for food or just hanging in the Vlatava river. They haven’t proven to be as friendly as the Iowa City ducks, but maybe like the Czech people, they take a little buttering up before they’ll eat bread out of your lap.

Lastly, swans. Fuck swans. They think they are so elegant and graceful. They are mean and make very ugly sounds. Although I will admit, they do add a certain “cherry on top” vibe to the Prague river scene.

I am glad to say I have money again thanks to Western Union and my mom. I will spare you the details of what may have been the worst day of my life trying to get a cash advance on my credit card. HSBC sucks.

Classes technically started on Monday. I have yet to attend one. This is due to the fact that the entire registration system at Charles University is retarded and could easily be solved if someone spent a week gathering information from professors and then putting it all in one neat and lovely PDF file. This disorganization does make me miss Iowa and the ever so lovely ISIS registration system. But, I have finally discovered the times for ¾ of my classes, one is tomorrow, I am very excited to begin learning again. I left Iowa over 2 months ago, time to give the ole’ thinker some work again.

I have been waking up with the worst sore throats that linger throughout the day and I refuse to go to a doctor unless entirely necessary. I have been eating healthy and drinking juice/taking vitamins but the weekend starts tomorrow so sorry immune system, you’re just going to have to toughen up and deal.

Today was spent meeting with my advisor, walking around the Jewish Quarter for a bit with Mark and then spending the afternoon with my awesome Scottish friend Katie. Hit some organic vegetarian place for lunch, walked to one of the islands that are in the Vlatava river, then got some hot chocolate in a Café near campus before heading to our respective homes.

Tomorrow is Crazy Hair Night at club Saszu. ALLLLLLL RIIIIIIIIITTTTTEEEEE.

Weekend

So where to begin?

I believe I left off with our adventure home from Klub Lavka. A lot and not a lot has happened since.

The next day, starving, having not eaten a full meal since my plane ride into Frankfurt, I demanded that Mark and I venture into town to eat a real Czech meal. He was more than thrilled on this idea since he had also not indulged in Czech cuisine. With the help of a Prague travel guide, we found a nice Czech restaurant on the border of Old Town and the Jewish Quarter.

Upon arrival, we both knew the meal would rule. Our newly acquired French friend Claire and our fun Romanian friend Eliza were going to meet us there. (Eliza is also a big fan of Kyuss). Since texting is cheaper than calling in Prague, the replies were spaced out, and me and Mark wound up waiting for over an hour until the girls arrived. To pass the time we had a few beers and ordered a meat tray appetizer. This tray may have had some of the best mustard and cured ham I have ever tasted. Finally, in typical girl fashion the ladies arrived and informed us they weren’t eating. STARVING, Mark and I quickly placed our orders, beef goulash with potato pancakes, and venison goulash with bread, respectively. The meal was incredible and filling.

We paid our tab and walked out onto the rainy streets of the Jewish quarter. I diverged and went to find a café so I could hop on facebook, read e-mails, and post blogs for you lovely people. I expected to find cafes with WIFI on every corner, this was not the case. I wound up wandering for a half an hour until I reached Wenceslas Square and jumped into the first café I found. It wound up being extremely over priced and because of this I was pissed off and left after 20 minutes. Much to my chagrin and pleasure, I came home to a working internet connection in the dorm and spent the rest of the night on facebook and skype catching up with people.

Friday was well spent.

Mark and I went to the center early so I could talk to my advisor and attend an informational meeting for my faculty. When I went to the office the door was locked and there was a sign on the door that I could not read. Everything here is in Czech. God bless full emersion but not being able to read important signs is fucking frustrating. Since Mark had errands to run I told him to go on without me as I camped out infront of the office door hoping to catch my advisor. Sure enough, I was right about the meeting at 14:00. During my wait I met a very friendly Australian who was stoked on the Iowa writing program.

The meeting was rather useless. I already knew everything we were told. However, I did receive a nifty handbook from the University!

I walked the Aussie to the registration building, met up with Mark and we walked around for the better part of an hour trying to find an off-the-beaten-path restaurant. We succeed and had a nice meal of Gulash and garlic soup.

Mark has really been a saving grace here. He has been floating me since Wednesday night and never complains a bit about it. I feel bad every time he pays for my meals. I plan on paying him back in full with interest.

Most of the kids that night planned on going to a nightclub. As all of you know that’s not my bag, so spent an hour looking a pub reviews for Prague, finally settling on one outside of Old Town Square. Yet again, Mark and I boarded the tram and hit the town. The bar was awesome. I wish I could describe it but I would do it no justice. Running on only soup, I got drunk rather quickly so we indulged in onion rings and pretzels. The waitress made fun of my Czech, the bartender was stern and serious, but friendly. We spent 2 hours or so watching hockey and curling on the TV, talking about random things and doing our best New Yorker/New Jersey accents. I have to say mine are not bad, thanks Mom.

Paying our tab of a whopping 15 dollars (3 beers each, pretzels, onion rings, plus an extra beer we didn’t order but said fuck it) we walked into the night. We were met with men giving out pamphlets for hookers, all of who thought I was German. This was disturbing but also funny. At least they didn’t kidnap us and let foreigners pay to torture us (Yo you ever seen that movie Hostel?).

I had seen the same street vendor that Anthony Bourdain went to on next to our night tram stop the previous night so we set out on a quest for fried cheese sandwiches and sausage. Success!!! The fried cheese sandwich may be the best drunk food ever. EVER. Marcos grilled cheese in IC can go to hell. I’d rather pay $1.50 for fried cheese than $4.00 for grilled cheese. While waiting for the tram Mark wandered off and returned saying we should go get some pizza. Who am I to say no to Pizza? The za was decent, but the special hot sauce they dolloped on top was extraordinary. I spent most of the ride home thinking I was going to have a heart attack. My body hadn’t seen that much food for days.

We made it home safely and hit the hay.

a little poem for y'all

The sun is shining in Prague

and i am sitting in a dorm

no time for writing in a blog

woot woot!

End of day 3

Ibid your honor

So the party continued until about 2:30am. We left in a drunken stupper and no one really had any idea how to get home. The Hong Kong girls said we had to take the 56 tram cause our normal one stops at midnight. We spent 30 minutes or so asking random people/hot dog vendors/angry cabbies where the 56 stop was. I finally took control of the situation and with my drunken broken Czech and German found out where to go.

Well…kinda.

We headed towards our destination and when we arrived where we thought was the finish line we saw no red ribbon. I then proceeded to find the hippest, nicest looking group of people I could find and ask them where to go. These 3 Czechs turned out to be very helpful and actually walked us to the tram stop (yay for Czechs not all being cold and mean!!!!). We got on the 56 tram and sat for a few minutes dreaming of sleeping on our glorified couches and dreading the next day’s hangovers. That was until Eliza realized we were headed the wrong direction. In a scramble we all ran off into the street as the doors closed, and crossed the street to wait for the correct route. During this wait Mark, who was 3 street vendor hot dogs deep, decided to wander off to find a street corner WC. After 15 minutes we all got worried over his whereabouts. Failing to answer his phone, we eventually see Mark from the window of our golden chariot running towards the tram. He boards safely, apologizes with a big grin and takes a seat.

The ride home was 35 minutes long and while the kids from Hong Kong slept, Mark, Eliza and I all exchanged smiles, stoked on the night, stoked on Prague.

half o day 3

Yesterday was an awesome day.

My roommate got up at 7:30 and made a bunch of noise while getting ready. He eventually left and I fell back asleep for a few hours. Mark and I hit up the internet building in attempt to get it set up for our rooms, his now works mine still doesn’t they said it should by Friday.

We had decided to take a guided tour of Prague through the ERASMUS program at Charles University, so after taking the tram to Prague 1 we met up with a bunch of other foreign students and went to Hradcny (Prague Castle). I could go into detail about all the other students, most of who were extremely friendly save for one Hungarian guy and a German girl.

Prague Castle is indescribable. It was rather dreary day which, took away from the Castle’s magical character and a lot of us were so excited to meet new people I only took a few moments every now and then to really just stand and observe in awe.

Mark, Eliza and I had been discussing Uggs in fashion earlier that day, both of them despised the boots but I stood strong with my fascination with girls in Uggs. Sure enough at Hradcny we saw a group of girls in North Faces and Uggs. It was oddly comforting how quickly I could tell they were American and I wondered if any of the Europeans could determine that as well. I approached them and asked a guy in a North Face windbreaker is he was American. He cheerfully affirmed my suspicion and shot his hand out accompanied with a “You too? Put ‘er there partner” (he wasn’t Texan). The girls wound up being from Wheaton and Glen Ellyn one of whom lives right by D-Lawson. Who would have guessed it? One even goes to Iowa. Being somewhat embarrassed by my American cohorts I quickly left the conversation at that and wished them a nice stay (they were visiting from Italy).

Fast forward a few hours to Mark Eliza and I running around Prague trying to find the place to get our student public transportation passes. We eventually found the building after an hour of searching the same 3sq block area. This pass used up the last of my money from home, so I decided to use an ATM I saw in the building. THEN THE FUCKING MACHINE ATE MY CARD! I have no idea why or what went wrong but it took my card. It gave me a receipt which might as well have read “Fuck off tourist”. I called the number on the receipt and was quickly helped. They are going to retrieve my card and I will pick it up on Friday. Mark gladly offered to float me for the next week or so. We then hurried to the café we went to the day before hoping I could get on the web and call US Bank and e-mail mom etc. Their internet didn’t work, so we sat and drank our absolutely fantastic hot chocolates, I mean really really fantastic and then headed home hoping the internet is working. Of course mine didn’t, so after using Marks and making a 80Kc phone call to US Bank I cancelled my old card and ordered a new one. Should be here in a week and a half or so. UGH.

In desperate need of a pick me up since I had began to feel sicker and sicker all day, we decided to go to the ERASMUS welcome party at Klub Lavka. I don’t think any bar could have a prettier location. The bar is situated on the Vlatava river just before Charles Bridge and looks out towards Hradcny, I don’t have any pictures but just take my word for it. I caught mark looking out an open window towards Charles Bridge and the castle and although cliché, we both acknowledge how very lucky we were to be there.

The club itself was what I expected. Think the music of Vito’s in what should be a 5 star restaurant building, a building most likely older than the US constitution. The beer was great and less than 2 dollars a liter. There was much mingling with students from earlier and also with random people. I took it upon myself to talk to everyone who looked hip and friendly, hip because I at least knew I could talk music with them, and friendly because I don’t want to get killed. (Yo you ever seen that movie Hostel?). I spent most of the night trying to track down this adorable Scottish girl from the tour who had the same scarf as me, I had neve felt like more of a poser.

To be continued….

Recap of day 2

This post is being written a few hours after I posted my first one.

Me and Mark, who it turns out is a “Dead Head” (Big Grateful Dead fan to you unhip cats) and really likes Phish so he can’t be a bad guy, went and got registered for our rooms this morning. Once again the lady at registration spoke zero english, and Mark and mine’s Czech is very limited. Finally and rather painlessly that all got settled and I was issued a different room. As I presumed this was a fun fiasco. Turns out the room I was supposed to live in was full but no one told the registrar that, I didn’t have to move. Thankfully, the lady at the front desk spoke German! I knew that would come in handy here. I was very proud of myself and all the women helping me were smiling watching me stumble through my German. It also felt awesome to be able to communicate with them, we totes bonded.

Me and Mark then met up with the two girls from Hong Kong, went to the post office so they could send a massive 1000Kc package home and then hit the tram to Prague 1. I followed them to their building, then back tracked to mine. I met my advisor who was very helpful, ran into Mark on my way back to meet him at his building, and followed him and his group to get our ID cards.

Then….I met more people. All very friendly, a Spanish girl, a Ukrainian girl, two more American girls, a Cunuck and possibly more, I forgot. Anywho, we all ventured to the mall where we got cell phones, exchanged numbers then me and Mark went and ate at the food court with some girls. Had some chicken tiki masala, it was good.

On to a more interesting topic.

My roommate has just arrived. He doesn’t speak much English, is 25, studies law, and gave me a lecture about locking the door all the time. Who called it? He seems like a harmless dude, and maybe he’ll cut loose, or maybe I’ll make him cut loose. Either way, he’s in for quite the semester, and I think I am too. (Never mind I just saw his bible that wasn’t there before in a plastic bag, I’m fucked)

As I was saying before. Ate some food, then Mark, a Romanian named Liza and I wandered around Prague for a few hours. Save for standing at one of the many bridges looking towards Hradčany, I never really got to soak it all in, it was all so overwhelming I kind of just had tunnel vision the whole time. My dogs were barking all day and my backpack was only getting heavier, so we popped into a café, chilled, all hopped on the interweb and then caught the tram home.

Expect these blog posts to get shorter but since I have no internet and few friends on the floor I have nothing better to do than journal.

3 of my friends ventured off to a party which sounded far too complicated to get too for me so I decided to hang around here and try and make friends.

There is a pub connected to our dorm and I figured it would be worth czeching out. So I wandered down yonder had a few beers and attempted to read some Flannery O’Conner. Andre Perry was a liar when he said drinking and reading go together. I couldn’t focus and wussed out on talking to the kids playing Magic cards across from me. Thankfully, each beer was less than a dollar so after quickly drinking my fill I wandered back only to get jumped by a very eccentric Slovak named Richard who was eagerly interested in what I was reading.

The jist of our conversation covered his friend who lived in Ames, Joyce, Kafka, The Wizard of Oz and how Chara’s name when pronounced in English means the same as a line of cocaine in Slovak but when pronounced properly in Slovaka means “bad” in gypsy language. As quickly as the conversation started it ended and Richard ran off to make dinner at 10:30pm.

Oh yeah, you are allowed smoke in all the stairwells here. Makes me think back to stories of the Mayflower crew illegally smoking in their stairwells. Needless to say, Czechs are nuts.

Ps. If you could tell me what you want to write about more or to not write at all, let me know cause, I’m not sure how to blog and I don’t think anyone else does either

WOOT WOOOOOT

I have arrived in Prague. Talk about culture shock. My backpack wound up weighing a lot so lugging that around sucked as I attempted to find my dorm which looks likes a mix between Cabrini Green and Mayflower, it was most likely built during the Soviet era and it definitely has that feel, but I think it will suffice! I have a roommate who I am guessing will be Asian, he has yet to come back to the room, he is in for quite the surprise.

My RA is an old frail Czech lady who speaks no English. She seems nice and helpful though, I can see me and her becoming best friends. She told me I have to go to the registration office that is apparently across the street tomorrow at 8am. I have no idea where this building is or what I am supposed to do when I get there. I guess I’ll find out.

I knocked on the door of the kids across the hall from me. They seem like angsty Czech dudes who most likely enjoy industrial music, possible friendship number one???

I don’t know how long I have been awake or really even what day it is, I can barely keep my eyes open and because of this administrative stuff I have to do at 8am I cannot bring myself to go downtown Prague.

4 hours later…

I have made friends!

At first the talking from the hall was distracting me from my Univ Iowa Writers Workshop grad Flannery O’Conner reading but as the English became louder and more cordial I figured I should venture out and introduce myself. One boy from Syracuse (no he doesn’t know Kelly Bertog) a Georgian (the country) and 2 girls from Hong Kong along with 2 Albanians and a really awesome dude from Ghana. Me and the other American have a date in the morning to register for basically everything. The Georgian also told me about a billiards bar some 50 or 100m down the road (metric system FTW)!

It’s definitely weird being here. Although I haven’t even been to the main part of Prague it’s still baffling. I’m sitting in my room (roommate still has yet to arrive) with the door semi-open listening to some good ole Broken Social Scene, and students keep passing throwing weird looks through the cracked door. . It reminds me of sophmore year at Iowa where Rhett and I would be the only ones with our doors open on our wing in Currier.

Not a lot of smiling faces from the other residents of lovely Kolej Hvĕzda. I don’t blame them since it is finals week of the winter semester, but finals week always left me looking for an excuse to pop into someone’s room and shoot the shit for a bit.

From the sound of it, Charles University is pretty tough. I expected as much and somewhat hoped for it but it would be nice to just breeze around for 5 months.

I’ve learned that you can basically do whatever you want in the “dorms”, except for smoke inside. Hope my roommate likes to party but judging by how neatly his desk is organized, I doubt he gets rowdy on the reg.

I am now at an idnian restaurant in the big mall in Prague. I have gotten my school ID card, a cell phone and some water. But to avoid being anti social I will post this and then fraternize with ladies.

PEACE

Grand Tetons

listening to this makes me just stoked on every thing.

http://blog.missionfreak.com/

(look for the grand tetons in studio performance"

Preface?

I leave in less than week. With work everyday until thursday and a possible snow storm tuesday, i can't imagine getting everything i have to get done done.

I have started reviewing my Czech text book and phrase book at work, it's slowly coming back to me, but i know when i get there my Czech language skills with be nothing short of useless, save for the extreme basics. I've also been re-reading my Prague short stories book, the book that made me fall in love with a city I've never been to.

I'm finding it hard to grasp the fact that soon ja budu Praha kolem dokola chodit, but ready or not i will be.

I'm scared of being jet-lagged but i feel like a nice smokey pub will cure me quickly.

In the mean time i will spend my days conditioning and working trying not to spend money. I think i may go buy a pair of chinos at j crew, gotta get my swag on.

That's it for now. Back to watching Titanic.